Former Calvert County commissioner Wilson Parran will be taking a new role at the state level Aug. 21 as the Maryland Department of Transportation deputy secretary of administration and operations.

On Wednesday, MDOT Secretary James T. Smith Jr. appointed Parran to the deputy secretary position.

Currently, Parran serves as the Maryland Department of Natural Resources assistant secretary for mission support, where he oversees human resources, fair practices, licensing and registration, finance and administrative service, audits and information technology. He has been in that position since 2011, he said.

“I’m really looking forward to this,” Parran said Thursday morning of the transition, adding that he looks forward to working with Smith.

DNR Secretary Joe Gill said in a release to DNR employees Wednesday afternoon, “Wilson’s contributions to DNR have been great, both as a leader of our mission support programs for the past two and a half years, and in his previous service as our Information Technology chief. While this will be a huge loss for our agency, we all wish Wilson much success in his new position.”

As one of two deputy secretaries for MDOT, Parran will oversee the assistant secretary of administration and reporting offices, human resources, procurement, transportation technology services, and finance, according to an announcement about Parran’s appointment from Smith to MDOT employees.

Parran said that in addition to his duties, he is looking forward to “leveraging” the new transportation revenues from the Transportation Infrastructure Investment Act of 2013 for Maryland citizens.

Smith said in his announcement that Parran will be “crucial to the implementation of our new expanded vision for Maryland’s Transportation Network.”

“Having worked closely with Wilson for many years through the Maryland Association of Counties, I can assure you that we are lucky to have him,” Smith said in his announcement. “He is a great team builder with experience in the public and private sectors.”

Parran served as Calvert County commissioner for eight years from 2002 to 2010, four of those years as the board’s president. He has also served as president of the Maryland Association of Boards of Education, president of the Maryland State Board of Education and president of the Maryland Association of Counties.

He worked as vice president of corporate systems at Bell Atlantic and president and chief information officer of Frontier Information Technologies.

Parran will be joining Leif A. Dormsjo, who will begin Aug. 21 as deputy secretary of planning and project management, according to Smith’s announcement.